newark police

Volume 2, Number 10 of Black NewArk, the local newspaper of the Committee For Unified Newark (CFUN), published in September 1973. Black NewArk was one of several media outlets developed by Amiri Baraka to promote Black cultural nationalism in Newark and the nation. — Credit: NYU Tamiment Library

Volume 2, Number 8 of Black NewArk, the local newspaper of the Committee For Unified Newark (CFUN), published in August 1973. Black NewArk was one of several media outlets developed by Amiri Baraka to promote Black cultural nationalism in Newark and the nation. — Credit: NYU Tamiment Library

Volume 2, Number 1 of Black NewArk, the local newspaper of the Committee For Unified Newark (CFUN), published in January 1973. Black NewArk was one of several media outlets developed by Amiri Baraka to promote Black cultural nationalism in Newark and the nation. — Credit: NYU Tamiment Library

James Rutledge, Sr. wrote this note, giving the Perry Funeral Home the authority to permit photographers to take pictures of his son’s body after he was gunned down by city and state police on July 16th. A photograph of James Rutledge, Jr.’s body in the morgue was distributed throughout the city and gained notoriety with the Essex County Grand Jury. According to photographer C. Danny Dawson, “The body would have looked worse if it hadnt been opened for embalming.” Rutledge was shot 39 times. — Credit: New Jersey State Archives

Testimony of Harry Wheeler, director of the Committee Against Negro and Puerto Rican Removal, before the Governor’s Select Commission on Civil Disorder on December 8, 1967. The Commission was held following the 1967 Newark rebellion to investigate the causes of the rebellion and called witnesses to testify like a Grand Jury. –Credit: Rutgers University Digital Legal Library Repository

Witness Testimony of Earl Harris before the Governor’s Select Commission on Civil Disorders on December 8, 1967. The Commission was formed to investigate the causes of the 1967 Newark rebellion and operated much like a Grand Jury investigation. –Credit: Rutgers University Digital Legal Library Repository

Flyer distributed to protest the arrest and trial of LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), who was arrested and beaten by police during the 1967 Newark rebellion on allegations of gun possession. Newark Police alleged that the flyer was printed and distributed by the United Community Corporation at 124 Branford Place in Newark. — Credit: New Jersey State Archives

Police report forwarded to Newark Legal Services Project director, Oliver Lofton, from Newark Police Director Dominick Spina on June 19, 1967. The report was based on information provided by the City Clerk regarding alleged plans of the UCC Area Boards 2 and 3 to bring the Black Panthers to Newark. The report names several influential Black and Puerto Rican community leaders, including Lofton, Robert Curvin, Louise Epperson, Honey Ward, George Richardson, and Jesse Allen, as accomplices to a planned “revolt” by the “Spanish and Negro population” on June 27. The UCC and other community organizations in Newark were continuously subjected to official surveillance and later blamed for the outbreak of the 1967 Newark rebellion. — Credit: Junius Williams Papers

Draft article by Newark Evening News reporter Doug Eldridge describing Ken Gibson’s comments on the report issued by the Governor’s Select Commission on Civil Disorders. Gibson, a member of Newark’s Business Industrial Coordinating Council (BICC) and 1966 mayoral candidate, became the first African-American mayor of Newark in 1970. — Credit: Newark Public Library